Fresno County, California Biographies
Source: History of Fresno County, California, with biographical sketches of
the leading men and women of the county who have been identified with
its growth and development from the early days to the present (1919)
History By Paul E. Vandor
Illustrated, Complete In Two Volumes
Historic Record Company, Los Angeles, California, 1919
Notes: Missing+page1185-1186
Transcribed by Peggy Hooper
This file is part of the California Genealogy & History Archives
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cagha/index.htm
JOHN W. SMITH. � An enterprising and progressive California mer-
chant, who had the honor of having erected the first store-building at Biola,
and whose wife was the first postmaster in that place and served with excep-
tional ability and to everybody's satisfaction until the office was discontinued,
was John W. Smith, who first came to California in the early nineties. He
was born at Danville, in the good old state of Virginia, on April 5,1868, the son
of Levi W. Smith, a native of Maryland. Josiah Smith, the grandfather, was
a Marylander, but he removed to Virginia with his family and there became
a planter. Levi W. Smith was a wheelwright, and he ran a carriage and
wagon factory ; he was also an undertaker and made coffins. He served in the
Civil War and he continued business at Danville. He married Martha Coan,
also born in Virginia. These good parents had three boys, and John W. was
second in order of birth.
John W. Smith attended the public schools and when fourteen began to
paddle his own canoe. He went to North Carolina with an uncle, Thomas
Smith, a farmer, and for two years was a guard in the State Prison at Raleigh.
He resigned, and became a salesman for a wholesale tobacco house, for which
he traveled through North Carolina. Railroads were few, and the salesman
was expected to make the deliveries, usually by teams. At the end of two
years, in 1892, he came to Minnesota; then in a few months to Missouri; and
in 1893 to California.
Having spent the summer at Bakersfield, with Miller & Lux. Mr. Smith
came in the fall to Fresno and here at once engaged in farming on the West
Side. In partnership with Walter Caruthers, he leased the Jeff James place
and ran 2,000 acres, using several teams, large out-headers and threshers ; but
the dry years and poor crops set them back in what otherwise would have been
a very successful venture, and after two years, they dissolved the partnership.
Mr. Smith then went to Paso de Robles and farmed on the Estrella Plains,
raising grain; and he engaged in cattle-growing at Parkfield. on the county
line, running from three to four hundred head. When he sold out, he remov-
ed to San Joaquin County and at Escalon bought a ranch, engaging in dairy-
ing, and raising stock and alfalfa. In December. 1913, he sold out and located
at Biola, when the railroad had just been completed. He built the first store
there, which was the first structure except a small cottage and real estate
office ; and he put in a stock of general merchandise, and here he continued in
business up to the time of his recent accidental death.
At Paso de Robles, in 1902, Mr. Smith was married to Mrs. Mary
(Freeman) Fanset, a native of that beautiful town and the daughter of J. L.
Freeman, a pioneer there. By her first marriage she had four children : Elmer ;
Carl, a partner in the business with his mother; Annie, deceased; and Belle.
Mr. and Mrs. Smith had two children : Allan, who is a graduate of the Ker-
man High School, and assists his mother ; and Coan.
Mr. Smith was always a public-spirited man, and in San Joaquin County
he served for years as a school trustee. Mr. Smith passed away on January
26, 1919, meeting death in an automobile accident, since which time Mrs.
Smith and her son, Carl Fanset, conduct the business.